Interior's 32¢ appeals

Patrick Crow
Washington, D.C.
[email protected]

Five years ago, this column detailed the U.S. Interior Department's move to close a loophole in its rules that had allowed environmental groups to delay energy projects in the western U.S.

Opponents to drilling didn't need a valid reason to keep a well from being spudded. All they needed was an envelope and a 29¢ stamp (OGJ, Sept. 28, 1992, p. 41).

Merely by informing the Interior Board of Land Appeals (IBLA) that they planned to challenge a Bureau of Land Management decision to issue a drilling permit, opponents could get an automatic stay of up to 2 years.

And they did. Often.

When Interior finally closed the loophole, it explained its appeals process had been overwhelmed by its own red tape. It said frivolous appeals had congested the system, stalling the valid appeals.

New threat

Since then, the cost of a first class postage stamp has increased to 32¢.

And Interior has forgotten the lesson of the 29¢ stamp fiasco.

Currently, BLM decisions on permits take effect the next day, unless a stay is requested and the stay survives a four-part BLM analysis of its merits.

Now Interior's Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) has proposed a rule that would permit an automatic stay of any BLM decisions that are appealed to IBLA. Oil and gas firms would have the burden of petitioning OHA if they wanted the automatic stay lifted.

The proposed rule apparently would not affect individual drilling permit approvals, but would apply to broader decisions, such as those involving the development of an entire field.

The Rocky Mountain Oil & Gas Association (Rmoga) said environmental groups recently requested stays in the case of environmental impact studies supporting several field developments in Southwest Wyoming.

Those studies examined the impacts of a number of proposed wells in a defined area and did not include specific approvals of drilling permits or other operations.

Objections

Rmoga and individual oil companies are fighting the automatic stays.

The association said the proposed rule is premature because BLM also is reconsidering its appeal regulations regarding individual drilling permits. "The OHA and BLM rules should be considered together to avoid misinterpretations."

Rmoga argued, "The proposed rule fails to acknowledge the reasons for implementing the 1993 rule change to eliminate automatic stays-a mere (postage) stamp would bring all activities to a halt, injuring project proponents and other third parties.

"The financial impacts of automatic stays will be exceedingly burdensome to operators and local, state, and federal economies due to the loss of the revenue stream from oil and gas operations during the typical 2-3 year period ILBA requires to decide an appeal."

Rmoga said OHA proposed the rule because it thought that automatically staying every appealed action would reduce its paperwork burden.

Rmoga said what OHA didn't anticipate was that the affected parties would be forced to file petitions to have the stay lifted or to request an expedited review of the case.

The result: even more paperwork.